Lance Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 As an age-out member of the 2008 Blue Devils I would like to say a few things. I rarely read this forum, in fact this is the first time I have been on since finals night. I am deeply saddened and very offended by some of the views expressed in this thread about my corps. First off, I would like to apologize on behalf of myself and my corpsmates for any rude or classless behavior that any drum corps member or fan might have seen from us after finals night. I Play Baritone Good- Judging by your opinions, it seems that the Blue Devils have personally insulted you in some way. I apologize for this, and hope you give us another chance. I'd like to tell the people who read this forum a few things about the Blue Devils, not the drum corps, but the members themselves. For the past few years the Blue Devils staff have started trying to create a new type of Blue Devil. The types of kids accepted in to the corps recently are a different breed than the Blue Devils of old. The staff are searching for younger kids with a better attitude and higher moral values. Did you know that the Blue Devils have a corps bible study group? There were around 50 members of the group this year. In case you didn't know we had 25 vets in the hornline this year. Mostly 2 years. How many did the cavaliers have? Can you imagine the pressure on all of those rookies, having to live up to the perfection expected of a Blue Devil every day? Hardly the bunch of scary ###### that for some reason most drum corps fans think we are. When I made the Blue Devils, I was shocked at how nicely I was treated as a rookie. Much nicer than my former corps. It's true, we have some members who can be jerks, but doesn't every corps? Please don't judge the entire membership of the corps on a few bad apples. We're doing our best to change. We all know what happened finals night. Maybe some of you were expecting it. We sure weren't. We were a corps of mostly rookies, we worked so hard to be worthy of just being called Blue Devils. We thought that we had worked hard enough to attain our dream of being a World Champion. We had a chant on the Hound after we learned the score of every show we won. It went like this: "We're not that good! We're not that good!" We believed we could never stop working hard. A corps of rookies. Not a lot of experience, but tons of heart. I'm sorry we don't play emotional music, but don't think we don't have just as much heart as any other corps. Finals night was truthfully the most heartbreaking night of my life. Not only did we not attain our dream we had been working so hard for, it seemed like the whole world was ecstatic about our failure, as it seems like some members of this forum are. Happy that the Regiment won their first solo championship, but even happier that it was the big bad Blue Devils that had been defeated at the end. It was the first time I had cried since I was 7. Our rookies were absolutely devastated. We felt like we had let Joe down. It was a very hard way to leave drum corps forever. Unfortunately, I will probably remember that night more than the night when I actually won the championship for the rest of my life. I'm completely offended by the things that some people on this forum can say about a group of KIDS that had their hearts broken. Some of you need to realize that this is not a professional sport, kids make mistakes. Kids say stupid things when they are upset. I could tell you about all of the snide and outright mean things said to me AND MY PARENTS after finals night, but I'm not. I lost my belief in this activity when my father was insulted only for having a son in the Blue Devils. Some of the other corps aren't as "funny" or "clever" as you think by the way. The blind opinions about the Blue Devils are garbage. The people who can be happy about kids having their hearts broken are garbage. Makes me wanna puke. There are quite a lot of us who were ecstatic that Phantom won, but also see how it could be incredibly heartbreaking for you. Just be rest assured that we outweigh the more classless people you're talking about. It's pretty obvious when somebody just posts to test how creatively they can slam BD without quite flaming any individuals thereby making it eligible for removal under our ToS...it's best to just try to ignore them. You're done with junior corps, but best of luck in whatever you do with the whole rest of your life, Poke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaterTheTrooper Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 My problem with retreat was the fact that some people behaved in a way that cut a performance from my DVD. The last thing I played as a part of the 2008 season was not included on the DVD’s because some individuals decided to make a statement about their placement. I sure as shootin’ wasn’t happy about how things turned out for my corps, but I played the music that was being conducted. No wrong notes, no wrong rhythms, and I cut off when expected. But no matter what I did, a few people ruined it so that my last performance was cut from the DVD. I can only imagine how Phantom Regiment and Will Pitts feel about having their moment left off because of some immature individuals. It’s happened in the past too. Not the part being taken off DVD’s, but if you listen to the 07 recording you can hear a trumpet and tuba hold over for a significant amount of time. Sure I was bitter and the last thing I wanted to do was behave in a respectful manner. But I did, because as cliché as it sounds my experiences have taught me that the quality of a person is not shown when they win, as much as when they lose. I also have immense respect for my uniform, what it stands for, and the members who had worn it before me. Not that others don’t have respect for their corps, but their actions don’t always convey that respect. I have been personally insulted by individuals while both of us were in uniform. I have had my butt slapped after encore, sexually explicit comments said to my face right after leaving the field from my performance, not to mention the countless other times I have endured verbal abuse. At the time I was enraged that these things had happened, but now I’m just disappointed that individuals can’t seem to understand that respect is a basic part of humanity. Even if I personally do not agree with how a corps acts, I will still treat them with respect for the fact that it’s the right thing to do; no matter how many times members of the organization have insulted me. I can only hope that at some point in time those individuals will realize how disgusting their behavior was and try to change their approach. And as I'm sure you have probably realized I have stressed it is individuals that act disrespectfully. I understand that not everyone in a corps is rude, but when you are in uniform no Joe in the audience is going to recognize a difference between you and the guy next to you except that you play trumpet and he plays snare. You represent your organization when you are in uniform and if somone does something to get noticed, your organization will be subject to generalizations whether good or bad. If you don't like it, either get over it or do something to change the way members of your corps behave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salad315 Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 (edited) I think its funny how every year right after finals, you get on these boards and its "oh ________ corpe was ROBBED!!! the system is BS, DCI is a conspiracy!!! the Judges are stupid etc".But now that the "Darlings" have won it, the system is PERFECT! What do you know! Dont get me wrong. I LOVED phantom regiment. In fact, i would have been happy with any one of 3 corps winning this year. MAYBE even 4! The fact that people sit here and make these blind, ingnorant comments about a group of young people having the NERVE to be upset when something like this happens just goes to thier narrow mindedness. Thanks for what you and your corps did and ignore these annonymous bashers. Some people just need that to make thier emptiness feel better. Tony Please. What EXACTLY are you referring to as the blind and ignorant comments. Where is the bashing and the hate? I really, really, dont see it. This whole thing started with some people talking about the blue devils prevailing attitude of arrogance - an attitude that most of them agree to having - and the fact that a few of them seemed unreasonably upset over losing on finals night. Some good points were raised regarding the relative value of winning and all that, but I really dont see what the hissy fit is all about. oh - and regarding your first point about how everyone was happy phantom won, and noone called conspiracy: you clearly were not on this message board for the last few weeks of august.... Edited December 12, 2008 by salad315 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salad315 Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 'snipped' Yes - we know it wasnt bd who ruined america this year. I still think this is a good point, coming from someone who was actually on the field (i certainly wasnt) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaterTheTrooper Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 (edited) I wasn't pointing a finger in any direction. Edited December 12, 2008 by TaterTheTrooper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salad315 Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 I wasn't pointing a finger in any direction. Cool - i was just saying that because i was sure people would accuse you of calling out bd....since the thread IS about them and all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagicBobert Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 (edited) ...posts by 84BDsop, Matt_S, other people who marched BD 2008... Wait... do you think I marched BD in '08? Because I didn't... I'm just sick of people demonizing corps. I hate the people who do it to the Cadets just as much... This from the kid who had "FTV" in his sig shortly after finals...what does that stand for again? Huh? What does the valley have to do with anything in this thread? I'm assume you're trying to insult me but I can't figure out how... Edited December 12, 2008 by MagicBobert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peel Paint Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?...It's just not right. It's not right. It's not, it's not going to change anything. We'll, we'll get our justice....Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while. Let's try to work it out. Let's try to beat it. Let's try to beat it. Let's try to work it out." - Rodney King, May 1, 1992 OK, everybody hold hands and play "Kumbaya" in unison, before this thread, which does have some valuable discussion, gets locked up in response to a stream of beatdowns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salad315 Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Wait... do you think I marched BD in '08? Because I didn't... There have been several people who did though...no reason to think anyone was talking about you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted December 12, 2008 Share Posted December 12, 2008 Huh? What does the valley have to do with anything in this thread? I'm assume you're trying to insult me but I can't figure out how... He probably thought "FTV" was a reference to the end tag of T.O. .. to which the mnemonic WAS, in fact, "F###...the...Vanguard." (Heh....the Vanguard alums in NorCal were not entirely pleased when that was spoken during the first few BD/SCV alum practices at the end of "Free" in 07....at Vanguard Hall!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts